How Future Society’s Base Scent Shifts Your Natural Body Odor to Make It Less Smelly

After more than 15 years of doing beauty journalism, it is extremely rare for me to come across a product launch that feels genuinely new. If the hydrogel eye patch hubbub this month proves anything, it’s that the beauty market is oversaturated with many versions of essentially the exact same thing. Then Jasmina Aganovic and her team at Future Society launched Base Scent, and my jaded mind was (finally!) a little bit blown.Base Scent, per the press release, is “an unscented daily treatment designed to help your body smell good on its own.” It’s not a fragrance. It’s not a deodorant. It’s a whole new category of product that Aganovic is calling “scent care.” Base Scent is an odorless spray you apply daily that shifts the microbiome of your skin in a way that makes you naturally smell more pleasant.Aganovic says the Future Society team spent five years developing Base Scent, noting in an Instagram video that the idea started because she wanted a better option for her sensitive skin. “I, of course, didn’t want to smell like BO, but I also didn’t want to smell like my deodorant,” she says in the video. “I just wanted to smell like me.”I asked a few other experts if Base Scent felt genuinely new to them, and they largely agreed that it did. “I haven’t seen anything quite like this,” cosmetic chemist Julian Sass says. “This feels like the next chapter in personalized beauty,” board-certified dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD, says. “We customize our perfume layering, haircare routines, and skincare regimens, so why not our own scent baseline?”Intrigued? Let’s really get into the weeds of how this stuff works.Jump to:What, exactly, is Base Scent?What makes Base Scent different?How does Base Scent work?Who is Base Scent for?How do you use Base Scent?My review of Base ScentMeet the expertsWhy trust Cosmopolitan?What, exactly, is Base Scent?Base Scent is a clear, odorless liquid that you apply wherever you want to shift your personal scent. It comes in a nice, 100ml glass bottle with a nozzle. Spraying it on is a bit like applying toner. You know that, theoretically, you’re not just putting water on your skin…but that is kinda what it feels like. However, there’s some serious science happening once the liquid hits your skin.The ingredient list is short, essentially a combination of skincare acids, prebiotics, a humectant, and water. While everything in the formula has been used in skincare before, Aganovic says the specific combination creates a whole new effect.What makes Base Scent different?Aganovic says that, historically, body odor has been managed in two ways: neutralizing it or covering it up. With Base Scent, Future Society is proposing a third option akin to pruning and arranging a bouquet. Over time, it eliminates the bacteria that produce bad smells and encourages the growth of bacteria that produce nice scents. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, now we’re going to make you smell sweet,” Aganovic says. “It’s just revealing what was always there.”If this is taking a minute to wrap your head around, that’s probably because we really haven’t seen anything exactly like this in the U.S. beauty market yet. The closest thing is probably those glycolic acid deodorants that were extremely popular a few years ago. The difference, Dr. Gohara says, is that those products are meant to manage odor (mainly by covering it up), while this Base Scent aims to actually change what your natural scent is.“I want to make sure people don’t conflate this with a crunchy, granola, natural deodorant alternative,” Aganovic says, although she says that people with sensitive skin who’ve had negative reactions to certain deodorants are excited about the product.How does Base Scent work?Base Scent works by literally changing your skin’s microbiome. “Everyone has a natural scent, like a fingerprint that you can’t see,” Dr. Gohara explains. “It comes from the unique mix of sweat, skin oils, hormones, genetics, lifestyle, and the microorganisms living on our skin.” On its own, sweat is mostly odorless, she says. The stink can come when your skin’s bacteria break those secretions down into aromatic compounds.The Future Society team studied those compounds. “We looked at about a dozen different skin microbes that produce scent molecules,” Aganovic says. Some of those microbes smell nice, while others have notes that people associate with bad BO—that cheesy, oniony, sulfury, acidic scent you’ve almost certainly sniffed in your own pits after a particularly long, sweaty day. The goal with Base Scent was to “shift [the skin ecosystem] and encourage it to make neutral and positive-smelling compounds,” Aganovic says.Dr. Gohara and Sass both agree the product is quite intriguing. “The concept is biologically plausible, and I like that the formula is short, unscented, and isn’t trying to drown the body in another fragrance,” Dr. Gohara says. “But ‘shifting your natural scent’ and ‘balancing the microbiome’ are significant claims.”Sass thinks it’ll definitely work for some people, but maybe not for all. “The microbiome is one of those things that the skincare industry hasn't quite cracked, since everyone's microbiome is different,” he says. “I think efficacy will definitely vary from person to person, and you won't know how well it will work for you until you try it.”Aganovic says that the fact that everyone’s microbiome is different created the biggest question when she started developing the product: Could this actually work for everyone? But after they got deep in testing, she felt confident it could. If you need an analogy, Aganovic offers this one: “No two gardens are the same, and yet we can still do the same type of practices that nurture [different] gardens to grow in the same sort of healthy way that we want. You’re not trying to make every garden identical … but you can nurture it in a direction that you want.”For the first week of the brand’s testing on humans, participants used Base Scent in addition to their usual deodorant-body lotion-fragrance routine. In the second week, they were asked to use Base Scent on its own; during that second week, Aganovic says participants noticed the most improvement in their personal scent.Who is Base Scent for?Base Scent can be for anyone who wants to shift their natural skin scent. During testing, Aganovic says athletes who worked out at least four times per week and were heavy sweaters and antiperspirant users had the biggest change in scent after using the product. Women might be particularly interested, because our personal scent shifts so much over the course of our reproductive cycles. “Pregnancy, postpartum, perimenopause, menopause… all of these things really impact our personal scent,” Aganovic says.She also sees a lot of potential for an older consumer. “The smell of our skin actually changes with the aging process. This has been well documented,” Aganovic says, noting that this is caused by increased levels of nonenal compounds on the skin. “It’s associated with, I hate this phrasing, but old people smell.” The team saw a reduction in nonenal compounds during Base Scent testing.How do you use Base Scent?To be clear, Base Scent is meant to be added to your existing routine, not replace anything. Aganovic says one of the most frequently asked questions she’s getting now is Will this replace my deodorant or will it replace my fragrance? “We’re not really doing either,” she explains. “It’s an unscented product that helps you smell better.” She says to think of scent care as you think of skincare, except that the result you’re seeking is a change in the scent your skin produces rather than increased collagen or less hyperpigmentation.Just like with skincare or haircare, you’re only going to see the full results from Base Scent when you’re actively using it. “It’s not like you use it for a certain period of time and then you’re cured of BO,” Aganovic says. However, she believes that you might notice fewer extreme fluctuations in your personal scent even after you finish your bottle.The recommended use is to apply two to four spritzes to clean, bare skin twice per day. It can be sprayed pretty much anywhere you want to shift your scent. Armpits are a popular location, but Aganovic says it works on the neck, chest, wrist, and feet too. The only places it’s not for are “intimate areas” or too close to your eyes. And, I learned the hard way after neglecting to read the fine print, you don’t want to use it anywhere you’ve just shaved or have cuts—the acids in the formula can cause stinging.My review of Base ScentI need to preface this review with two caveats. One, I am not a super sweaty, super smelly person. I don’t think this is a case of “you can’t smell your own stink;” I’ve gotten comments on my lack of wetness and odor after cardio-heavy group fitness classes many times in my life. Two, I am currently healing from a hip injury and, doctor’s orders, doing far fewer high-intensity workouts than usual. But, where I live, we are still in that awkward fall season where you bundle up in the morning and end up sweltering by lunchtime, so I had a fair amount of opportunities to sweat.I’ve been using it for about two weeks and, writing this at 6:30 PM after a day that included a tough PT session and walking my dog for four miles, I do think I smell pretty neutral. It’s not a dramatic shift, but it’s not supposed to be: I still smell like myself, but perhaps a little less musty. I’m curious to try it on my feet next, especially with winter boot season right around the corner.What I’m most excited about is the potential for even more exciting innovation in this space. While Base Scent is about bringing out your best natural scent, it sounds like Aganovic has even bigger plans in the future. “We see how certain microbes actually can have the genetic machinery to produce even more pleasant smells,” she says. “We do wonder if we can encourage that even more [for] people who are interested in having a warmer, sweeter skin scent.” Maybe in five more years, she’ll have figured out a way for everyone to produce their own signature fragrance using their body microbiome alone, no eau de parfum required.Meet the expertsJasmina Aganovic is a cosmetic scientist, chemical engineer, and the founder of Future Society. Mona Gohara, MD, is a board-certified dermatologist and clinical professor in the dermatology department at Yale School of Medicine. Julian Sass, PhD, is a cosmetic scientist who specializes in skincare. Why trust Cosmopolitan?Kara McGrath is a contributing beauty editor at Cosmopolitan. She’s been a beauty journalist for over 15 years, and much of her work has focused on breaking down the science behind best-selling products.Kara McGrath is a writer and editor with over 17 years of experience covering the beauty industry, women’s health, and a wide range of other lifestyle and wellness topics. After most recently serving as content director at Allure (2019-2025) and executive editor at Bustle (2014-2019), she is now fully freelance. In addition to Cosmo, her writing has appeared in Allure, The New York Times, Marie Claire, Business of Fashion, Playboy, NH Magazine, and more. Kara lives in New Hampshire with her dog, four cats, and a rotating cast of foster animals. You can find more of her work at karamcgrath.com.